Police charge woman with making up Katrina story

This is the first arrest out of 19 hurricane victim fraud reports, police said.

Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A 48-year-old woman is in jail because police say she falsely claimed to be a Hurricane Katrina victim.

Carolinda Winters was living at Union Mission in Savannah when Katrina hit, not Lafayette, La., as she told the Red Cross when she accepted relief checks, according to a Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police report.

Winters, who also goes by Carol Ann, is now being held at the Chatham County jail on a charge of theft by deception.

Police said Winters applied for and obtained money from the Red Cross for her and her 4-year-old daughter, including two checks totalling $665.

But she doesn't have any children, her family told police. And the family said she never lived in Louisiana.

Chatham County jail records show Winters has several local arrests in the past 12 years, including charges of financial transaction card theft and financial transaction card fraud from 2003, and theft by taking from 1993.

The Rev. Micheal Elliott, Union Mission president, could not say if Winters ever lived at the shelter, citing confidentiality rules.

"If such a thing happened, it must be someone wanting assistance not because they needed it," he said. "All their basic needs are met, so it must be malicious in nature."

Winters is the first arrest Savannah-Chatham police have made for scams relating to the hurricane, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson said.

Police have received 19 reports of people falsely claiming to be affected by the hurricane or legitimate victims double-dipping for more money.

One of those cases involved two women collecting donations from a downtown shop, claiming to collect it for a church that does not exist, police said. The store clerk confronted the women and got the money back.

Police are still looking for the women, but doubt they'll be located since police don't have photographs or identities.

Detectives and the District Attorney's office are now focusing on the 17 fraud reports made by the local Red Cross chapter, Wilson said.

"Most of the claims are legitimate evacuees, but some have filed and received more than one claim per household," Wilson said. "It does not indicate something illegal, but it may be a problem with the system or the application process."

About 2 percent of the 791 Katrina cases the Red Cross has received were suspicious, said Robin Wingate, CEO of the Savannah Red Cross chapter.

As of Tuesday, the Red Cross had distributed $569,826 in aid to hurricane victims, according to Wingate.

The Red Cross requires victims to provide a drivers' license, bill or documentation to prove residency of an effected address, Wingate said.

They then match the address with a list of affected zip codes provided by Federal Emergency Management Agency and the national Red Cross.

But sometimes that's hard to do. They recently had a man wander in without his wallet, eyeglasses or dentures, Wingate said.

Volunteers were left to check the man's residency through other means, like reverse look-ups or the police, Wingate said.

Katrina has complicated things for charities like the Red Cross, who usually visit homes of those in need.

"For the first time in history, we had people evacuate states and states away," Wingate said. "Much of the area, we still can't get into. It's challenged the Red Cross like never before."

Wingate declined to comment on specific cases, but said the national Red Cross is pushing to prosecute those individuals.

"In large disasters, there will always be some folks who try and take advantage of the system," Wingate said. "But what's important is we have helped nearly 800 families and the vast majority of people receiving assistance from us have had nothing."